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EMA-i: a Mobile App for Timely Animal Disease Field Reporting to Enhance Surveillance

The rationale for the app is that in some developing countries access to the Internet can be difficult, especially away from urban centres, while telephone networks have good signal coverage over wider areas with rapid connection form the field.

Using Smartphones, animal disease information is collected with EMA-i app from the field. These data, which are geo-referenced, are entered into the app. The app generates a report that is sent in real-time to the Global Animal Disease Information System (EMPRES-i) database where the information is safely stored. The data are verified and validated, and the submitter of the information can be contacted if necessary.

Surveillance and early warning of animal disease outbreaks, including zoonotic diseases, with potential public health impact enables national authorities to advise at-risk populations. However, early detection and timely reporting of animal diseases from the field are a challenge in developing countries, where weak infrastructure, human resources, capacities and lack of adequate incentives have an impact to effectively implement adequate disease surveillance and reporting. Good-quality disease information and reporting is needed in order to understand the disease situation, support decision-making, prevent potential disease incursion and respond quickly. Thus, it is crucial to apply a system at national level to enhance veterinary services capacities in disease reporting from the field to decision makers and information-sharing among stakeholders. For this reason, FAO has developed EMA-i (Event Mobile Application) for data collection and to facilitate real-time disease reporting to support veterinary services capacities in disease surveillance implemented in the field.